Saw your co-worker getting cozy with a statuesque brunette who wasn't his wife? Know the real reason that account executive got canned?

Keep it to yourself.

Such juicy dish or other gossip could get you fired at the Chicago public relations firm Empower PR. To drive home the point, Chief Executive Sam Chapman has employees sign contracts vowing they won't backbite. The policy has drawn praise from notables, such as Donald Trump, and ire from others who say Empower's policy is nothing more than a "Big Brother" ploy.

Chapman came up with the idea about a year ago when he began noticing employees "cloistering behind corners and chatting in ways" that weren't productive. Sensitive company information was being leaked.

"We had trouble," he said. His life coach zeroed in on the underlying problem: office gossip. Now all gossipers are confronted and required "to tell the person [they were talking about] what they said," Chapman said. "When you clean up gossip, you find that most of the stories aren't true."

Chapman may be on to something.

Since he instituted the "no gossip zone" a year ago, the small firm's revenues have doubled and so has the number of clients. Empower has 17 employees and 22 clients.